Can I Sign Up for Ibotta Again if I Cancelled My Account

" The Sell Sider " is a column written by and for the sell side of the digital media customs.

Today's column is written past AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher.

If you know the make Ibotta, you're likely thinking of the popular greenbacks-dorsum app. Users upload receipts of in-store purchases and redeem credit for products listed for promotion in the app.

Only while that business yet exists – and however represents the majority of Ibotta's revenue – the company is shifting from DTC app to B2B2C performance marketing network.

1 loose illustration is Foursquare. The location check-in app never abandoned its original DTC roots, but the business organisation is now focused on its network data and providing a technology backbone for other companies looking for mapping services or to attribute foot traffic.

Why is Ibotta well-positioned to make this move? Nearly every retailer has its app by now. But none on their own take the scale and incremental gains that CPG brands covet.

"We're putting together a network of at present 120 one thousand thousand and growing customers that you tin can reach in a single interface," said Ibotta Founder and CEO Bryan Leach.

AdExchanger spoke with Leach.

AdExchanger: How has the business concern inverse?

BRYAN LEACH: A lot has inverse.

A few years agone, we were a mobile app focused on delivering straight consumer greenbacks-back rewards. Merely over the terminal three years, we've begun building out a platform we call the Ibotta Performance Network, or IPN, where Ibotta'southward app is one publisher in a broader network.

We've since begun working with the largest retailers in the US to power their next-generation rewards programs. For example, we signed Walmart as our sectional partner for the next several years, which is a big deal because Walmart never had a digital rewards program. Fifty-nine years as a company – and the largest retailer – just they never had one. That launches in the next quarter.

Walmart has its own discounts, coupons and affiliate partners. Where is the exclusivity?

Walmart did utilize to have a price-matching program called Savings Catcher, but it was shut down and it wasn't a loyalty or rewards program, just a guaranteed lowest toll.

This is the offset fourth dimension Walmart has a program where people can become rewards for ownership specific items. It'southward phasing out paper coupons and replacing them with a closed-loop rewards program. Instead of getting a discount, like a newspaper coupon, you're getting Walmart greenbacks applied to your Walmart Plus membership.

On your next trip to Walmart or to Walmart.com, you tin utilise information technology much similar a Starbucks advantage or airline mileage. That's non the norm in the industry.

This represents a big alter in the way major grocery and pharmacy retailers think well-nigh loyalty. It's more than strategic and focused on return trips. It entices y'all to come up back and spend that currency.

When I say exclusive, I mean we're the merely company Walmart is partnering with to source content for that programme. Whatsoever manufacturer that sells its products at Walmart and wants to exist role of the digital rewards programme, whether it makes cheese sticks or mount bikes, works through us to do that.

I come across the value for Ibotta, but what's the benefit for Walmart to accept an exclusive vendor rather than work with a number of companies?

You lot demand someone to handle the coordination of offer delivery.

Ibotta is a widely used direct-to-consumer savings tool in the grocery space. If an offer is available at Walmart, there has to exist a mechanism for making certain it can't be stacked with an offer on Ibotta. Otherwise, customers could become double rewarded. Walmart needs a method virtually like air traffic control for identifying that a deal has been redeemed on the Walmart app, then take information technology off the Ibotta app.

Our scale makes the states the about logical partner to fulfill that part – simply it's very different than media, where Walmart works with The Trade Desk-bound. Yous tin can put impressions wherever you want, but nosotros use a reward value keyed off of a specific purchase.

Is Ibotta fully focused on the performance network now or do y'all however back up the receipt-based cash-back service in the app?

The app accounts for $xv billion in sales per yr and is withal a major part of our visitor and financial profile.

Merely the receipt upload has go less and less prevalent considering we now have directly integrations. For example, if you employ the Ibotta app at Walmart, all yous take to practise is link your Walmart business relationship and so you lot can pay with your credit bill of fare. You can still scan the barcode on your Walmart receipt if y'all want, and we'll credit you, but we've largely transitioned to a seamless non-receipt-based approach.

Why is that amend?

There'southward less fraud, so it's more than reliable from a consumer standpoint. Information technology too means we tin expect at your entire basket of purchases and personalize offers more accurately. Before the pandemic, we didn't support using Ibotta offers for online shopping, like online grocery. Then the pandemic hitting, and nosotros were like, "Oh shit."

So we went into, like, crazy Manhattan Project mode in Apr 2020 and launched support for cash-back on Walmart, Safeway and others. We already worked with Kroger to do that. At present about xv% of our redemptions are online grocery sales.

Do retailers similar that yous have your own app or do they view it as a rival shopper traffic aqueduct?

Retailers don't just want y'all to power their loyalty program – they desire incremental traffic and new sign-ups. And the Ibotta app can help retailers reach people who haven't downloaded their app yet.

1 of the reasons we've surpassed competitors like Quotient is that nosotros invest heavily in our B2C business organisation, which helps us brand the case to retailers that we tin can drive traffic and handle shopper coupon abuses and loopholes.

Do y'all still work straight with large brand marketers or are you doing more with agencies and ad tech?

We work much more closely with the major media agencies.

There is existent hunger among media buyers for improve targeted shoppable ads. Although nearly all of digital advertising is geared toward online sales conversions, xc% or more of purchases however happen in stores. Typical performance marketing misses that path to buy.

Brands can continue to spend heavily on upper-funnel ads and rely on multi-touch attribution models, merely it's pretty speculative and that methodology is unsatisfying – particularly when conversions occur in the physical world.

What we do is say, "OK, use The Merchandise Desk or LiveRamp, but also use creative that isn't just reminding people nigh a brand. Use creative that says go here and buy Bud Calorie-free to redeem this deal."

Information technology's actually cheaper and more than efficient to share a portion of sales with consumers. Otherwise, you lot end up with ad blindness and wasted impressions.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

martingoor1970.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/ibotta-ceo-bryan-leach-on-transitioning-from-a-cash-back-app-to-cash-everywhere-retail-media/

Share this post